Letters to the editor 4/29

Look long and hard at so-called heroes

Given the justly deserved disgrace of liar Lance Armstrong, a South African Olympian now charged with murder and an ex-cop turned spree killer being lionized on website, its time we all looked long and hard at who we admire, especially to heroic proportions.

Greek mythology is way above my pay grade, but I do know many of their heroes had flaws. Achilles was laid low by a simple wound to his heel, despite his fighting prowess. Had I been there I would have suggested he wear high tops to battle.

The highly decorated World War II soldier Audie Murphy was a tormented man because of his amazing heroics. He turned to alcohol and pills, had divorces, several scrapes with the law, finally dying in a plane crash surrounded by allegedly questionable businessmen. Peace at last, in Arlington.

My heroes were once named Mantle, Maris, Ford, Berra and Ruth. Now I know all were but men, some deeply and truly troubled. That doesn't diminish their Yankee baseball skills, yet shows me a hero is still flesh, blood and human emotions.

My dad was a hero, to many, but I didn't realize it at the time. Our town's milkman, he arose long before dawn ... to do his route, regardless of personal health or weather conditions. The long lines at his funeral viewing convinced me he was, in his way, a great man.

Real heroes abound around us. The best get right back up if they do stumble.

Larry Robinson

Wappingers Falls

The atheist must confess foolishness

Atheism sounds appealing. "Liberated" from an overbearing deity, we would be "free" to pursue happiness without the limitations of moral restraints.

But the freedom is an illusion, for with no moral absolutes, and no God to set guidelines, limitations and standards, we are as likely to fall prey to others' amorality as we are to take advantage of it, to say nothing of the emptiness and false promises of happiness.

Atheism is forced to replace God with an oligarchy composed of themselves and this god is far less benevolent than the loving merciful God who so loved us he gave his only Son. In fact, without God, without the hope of an afterlife, life itself is futile and meaningless; love, freedom and beauty mere illusions and there is no reason to "bear the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." The atheist then is a hypocrite and a coward by failing to think, act and live according to the dictates of his godless existence and the very causes many of them hold dear disintegrate into mindless, soulless, irrational ramblings.

The atheist cannot have it both ways. Either he must confess his atheism to be foolish and false or accept the anarchy with all its consequences its religion demands.

Jeffrey Mahoney

Hyde Park

Back green energy, not a gas pipeline

I am writing to object to the 36-inch-wide NY Marc Gas Pipeline proposed to run between the Town of Lloyd and Poughkeepsie near the Walkway Over the Hudson. There is absolutely no good reason why this beautiful area of ours should be subjected to the hazards of a gas pipeline at this time.

Our future energy needs must be supplied by green energy, which does not contribute to global warming or pollution as fossil fuels do. Therefore, we do not need a pipeline. The gas running through this pipeline will be sent to supply other countries. Fed by gas sources from hydraulic fracturing, this is clearly objectionable to the vast majority of people living in New York state. Our state is beautiful. We do not want hydraulic fracturing here because of irreversible dangers to the environment, to our water systems, livestock, health, etc. Certainly with wind, solar and water power technologies, our best direction is to eliminate any expansion and development of dirty, nonrenewable fossil fuel sources here.

Let's not allow this pipeline to be installed here. Let's work consistently toward what we, here in the mid-Hudson region need now ... clean green energy.

Pam Krimsky

Highland

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Letters to the editor 4/29

Given the justly deserved disgrace of liar Lance Armstrong, a South African Olympian now charged with murder and an ex-cop turned spree killer being lionized on website, its time we all looked long